Tag: South Korea

And so, this is it. The final pair of group matches at Brazil 2014. Belgium head the group and are already in the second round. They need a point to guarantee that they will finish top but in reality, they are likely to whatever happens, bar some very strange results. Their opponents, South Korea, have been completely unremarkable in the tournament but could still qualify with a win tonight. More probable, though, is that Germany’s opponents in the second round will be either Algeria or Fabio Capello’s Russia. Algeria are currently in second position by virtue of their 4-2...

A big game this evening, for Algeria. They lost their opening match but a win against South Korea will, in the light of Russia’s narrow defeat against Belgium a little earlier this evening, completely restore their chances of getting back into this group and perhaps finding a way into the second round of the competition. South Korea, meanwhile, will be eyeing Belgium up nervously before their final group match and will also be fully aware of the importance of getting a result this evening. Join Richard Grinham at eight o’clock for more. You can follow Richard on Twitter by...

And so to the next in our series of pre-tournament football arts from that lovable scamp Dotmund, who today has stories of misfortune and distemper from Nigeria, Portugal, Russia & South Korea. You can follow Dotmund on Twitter by clicking here. You can follow Twohundredpercent on Twitter by clicking...

Motty would never have done it. “Uruguay are the only team at this World cup yet to concede a goal,” declares a confident Jon Champion. I don’t know what the Portuguese for “oi, hang on a minute” is, but a lot of people are shouting it at the telly right now. Gareth Southgate has already told us that South Korea have entered what used to be exclusively African teams’ territory: “They were naïve defensively,” he says, adding “they gave away goals, naively,” just in case we’d missed it the first time. South Korea’s back four have nearly 250 caps between them and their average age is 30. Southgate is confusing naïve with “s***e”, as Uruguay’s opener partly confirms. Lee Young-Pyo, who was a Tottenham defender for a while so has an excuse for naivety, stands idly by as Luis Suarez nips in at the back post to nearly miss from six yards. It’s the goalkeeper’s fault for allowing Diego Forlan’s cross through his hands (and two weeks ago, they’d have been asking “was it the ball?”). But he gets away with it, until co-commentator Craig Burley sees the 19th replay, about 15 minutes later. “It’s goodnight and God bless,” intones Burley, keeping up the pundits’ habit of puzzling non sequiturs. Even Martin Keown might have said: “eh?” to that one. Suarez looks about a stone heavier than in the...